Category: THOUGHTS

Bowtie pasta with sundried tomato and scallion cream!

On By Barbara StroudIn FOOD, Recipe, THOUGHTSLeave a comment
Food & Wine

I was trying to think of what to make for dinner… ugh, I don’t want to be in a rut and make the same thing time and time again. We were both in the mood for some pasta, but we just weren’t sure HOW we wanted it… I happened to be on Facebook and I saw that Food and Wine magazine had posted a recipe that was quick and easy and sounded DELICIOUS! So off we went to the store, hunted and gathered the ingredients, popped home and threw it together in NO TIME! Seriously. This pasta sauce ISN’T. EVEN. COOKED! I had some reservations… hmmm, seems like you should at least cook it. I usually do try a new recipe pretty much as it’s shown, then the next time I make it I tweak it and change it up a bit. The only thing I did with this recipe is to use basil instead of parsley (LOVE tomatoes and basil together!) which the recipe did have listed as an alternative, and I used sundried tomatoes in oil instead of reconstituting… I also used mini bowties, well, just because I like them and they’re cute!  This. Was. Delicious. Say no more… I will be making this time and time again!

If you get a chance, check out this recipe. It would be nice paired with a small salad or a crusty loaf of good bread (as Ina would say). The recipe also mentions that it would be good with fusilli pasta, as the sauce would hold on to the crevices. See the wine pairing suggestion from Food and Wine below…
Pairing Suggestion – A fruity red wine will be ideal with the rich sauce and the assertive, salty taste of the sun-dried tomatoes. A slightly chilled bottle of Barbera or Dolcetto from the Piedmont region of Italy would be perfect.

Bow Ties with Sun-Dried Tomato and Scallion Cream

SERVINGS: 4   FAST / VEGETARIAN

Ingredients

5 scallions, white and light-green parts only

6 tablespoons chopped reconstituted sun-dried tomato halves (about 12 halves); see Note

1 cup light cream or half-and-half

1 pound bow ties

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper

3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions

  1. In a blender or food processor, puree the scallions and sun-dried tomatoes with 1/2 cup of the cream.
  2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the bow ties until just done, about 15 minutes. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta and toss with the puree, the remaining 1/2 cup cream, 1/3 cup of the reserved pasta water, the salt, pepper, and parsley. If the sauce seems too thick, thin it by adding more of the reserved pasta water.

 Notes

Reconstituting Sun-Dried Tomatoes In a small pan bring enough water to a boil to cover the dried tomatoes. Add the tomatoes, then remove from the heat and let steep in the hot water for about 5 minutes. Drain. You can also use drained oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes for this recipe. Since they’re already soft, you don’t have to reconstitute them.

Variation

Bow Ties with Sun-Dried Tomato and Herb Cream An equal quantity of chopped fresh basil or chives or 2 tablespoons of tarragon would be a good alternative or addition to the parsley.

Remember to visit my photo blog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com!

Image via Food & Wine – Melanie Acevedo

Last neurotic entry… for now…

On By Barbara StroudIn THOUGHTSLeave a comment

This SHOULD be the last neurotic post for a while… I’m making up for the weekend I took off in February. Ha ha… just heard the ding on my Blackberry… checked it and these two posts are going to my subscribers. Well… this is the last one. Hang tight, I am NOW CAUGHT UP and have this off my mind!

It’s funny, I started out thinking HOW WILL I BE ABLE TO WRITE ABOUT SOMETHING EVERY SINGLE DAY. It’s much easier than I imagined. It’s the getting it into the blog that’s the most time consuming. I have always enjoyed “creative writing”… technical writing isn’t my thing… it sucks away the creativity… I don’t care for that!

Enjoy your day… you won’t hear from me again until tomorrow.

PROMISE :)

I wish…

On By Barbara StroudIn THOUGHTSLeave a comment

OK, this is cheating. I’m technically now a cheater… so I guess I can no longer say “cheaters never prosper” again. Hmmm. I started this blog on 1/1/11 and the first weekend of February, decided to take a weekend off. This POSTADAY2011 challenge isn’t about posting every day EXCEPT weekends… it’s about posting every. single. day. It can be grueling. No one understands WHY i’ve done this to myself. Ha ha… I am back dating this, and I’m not sure that it will work, but it’s my way of paying back the time I took off… I want to be able to say at the end of the year that I posted EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. PERIOD.

If this goes out to my subscribers, I apologize. Ha ha… I can be a little compulsive when I commit to something, ha ha… Have a great day!

Jump in a puddle, go ahead, you know you want to!

On By Barbara StroudIn HOME, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is… JUMPING IN PUDDLES! Long ago when my husband used to show horses I had a pair of LL Bean boots, they were the best, you could walk through anything, and at horse shows you did precisely that! From the stable to the puddles your feet were safe and dry. Today it’s raining, it’s pouring at times, yet I could don these LL Bean Rubber Mocs and go skipping through puddles with no worries (which is exactly what you want to do when you have these shoes on, well, maybe not the skipping part, but…). You can get these in a variety of colors and shapes, from tall boots to shoes, from plain ones like I have to the shearling lined for winter, they’re the ticket! If you’re in the market for a good pair of rain boots/shoes that will keep your feet nice and dry, and are comfortable to boot (hee hee, pun intended), check them out! LL Bean!
 
Hey, I think I’m taking the weekend off… If I run into a spare few minutes I’ll pop on a post, otherwise check back on Monday… Until then…
Remember to check out my photo blog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com! Have a great FRIDAY!
 
Images via www.llbean.com

Death by lemon squares…

On By Barbara StroudIn FOOD, Recipe, THOUGHTSLeave a comment
Oxmoor House photo – Cooking Light

Everyone loves a good lemon square. Normally when I post a recipe I post it as I’ve made it with some changes, additions or subtractions. But this my friends is PERFECT JUST AS IT IS. It’s a Cooking Light recipe. You can copy and paste the recipe below… (the link to Cooking Light no longer exists).

Beware, this is “16 servings” which is really like “4 servings” in my book, so the calories, etc. do go up… but it’s worth every bite! Really…

EASY LEMON SQUARES – Cooking Light

 For the crust:

¼ cup sugar

3 tablespoons butter

1 cup flour

In a mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add flour to sugar mixture, mix on low until resembles fine crumbs. Gently press into the bottom of an 8” square baking pan. Bake at 350˚ for 15 minutes; cool pan on wire rack.

 For the topping:

3 large eggs

¾ cup sugar

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

1/3 cup FRESH lemon juice

3 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs at medium speed until foamy. Add sugar, lemon rind, lemon juice, flour, baking powder and salt. Beat until well blended. Pour mixture of partially baked crust. Bake at 350˚ for 20-25 minutes or until topping is set. Cool on wire rack.

 Before serving:

Sift 2 teaspoons of powdered sugar evenly over the top once it has cooled. (I skip this step, but it’s pretty!)

Nutritional Information:

Calories 118, Fat 3.2g (sat 1.7g, mono 1g, poly 0.3g), Protein 2.2g, Carbs 20.5g, Fiber 0.3g, Cholesterol 47mg, Iron 68mg, Sodium 68mg, Calcium 16mg

Post updated 01/23/25

Will he or won’t he??

On By Barbara StroudIn THOUGHTS1 Comment

Image via http://www.groundhog.org

Dangit! I forgot to go to Hallmark to get cards… hmmm. Wonder if we get mail today… hmmmm. It IS a holiday. YOU did remember, right? What holiday you’re thinking… ahhh, that would be GROUNDHOG DAY. Yes, today is the day, in the middle of an ice/snow storm that good ole Punxsutawney Phil will be pulled into the limelight to determine if we’ll see six more weeks of winter…  DO WE SEE HIS SHADOW? If it’s cloudy and there is no shadow that means an early spring… I’m kind of hoping he see’s his shadow. Winter in Charleston is nice, I sure don’t want to rush it! Here’s hoping you have a great groundhog day! Until next time…

A walk to remember…

On By Barbara StroudIn HOME, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

Move more – Eat less… it’s what the experts say we should all be doing… Well, we’ve been really good about moving more, that’s for sure (we could probably eat a little less, but…). Charlie (our Jack Russell) is instrumental in our fitness regimen… if we don’t get him walked at the bare minimum of four miles he’s wound up tighter than a tick (ick, what does that mean?)… Here are a few pictures from our walk today. We live near the West Ashley Greenway, it’s a great path that goes many miles out… Today we ventured out 2 miles and back 2 miles with a quick reward stop at Petco for Charlie… He loves to shop… then as we headed back down the greenway we detoured at Dolittles (another pet store with cool toys and treats) and then headed home. Hope you’re able to get out this weekend. It’s so nice this week, I’m looking at my Brookstone “weather station” and it’s shows 75 for Wednesday… holy cow, can you imagine August? Eek… for now, the nights are still cool, YAY!!! So a fire in the fireplace is what we look forward to! Have a great weekend… until tomorrow…

Artist to watch: Robert Joyner

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, Featured Artist, THOUGHTSLeave a comment
Image via http://www.robertjoynerartist.com

The day started innocently enough… taking the dog for a walk we ran into a neighbor. “What are you doing for Valentine’s Day?” she asked. Hmmm, we really hadn’t thought about it. We don’t usually go out to eat or buy flowers, etc since the dinners out that we have had on Valentine’s Day have been rushed and the flowers are at an overinflated price. But… that got us thinking… Fred was on Robert Joyner’s website (www.robertjoynerartist.com) and reading his blog, he saw this painting that we’ve had our eye on, Old Timer Number 5… it was still for sale… AND at that moment there was a 20% sale! Robert is very savy when it comes to his sales. Sales are there and then they aren’t, and then they are…  Earlier it was 15%…, now 20%, ohmygosh, a sign? We had just talked about cutting back, no more art this year. During the last year we’ve gotten some great pieces, but it’s time to slow down… we both agreed. BUT… IT’S. ON. SALE. So, we decided it would be our Valentine’s gift to each other (can we justify just about anything or what?), so it’s a done deal. It’ll be on it’s way here shortly and we CAN’T WAIT! If you haven’t been to Robert’s website I encourage you to visit it. It’s full of great information, stories and PAINTINGS! His blog is as interesting as it is informative. Speaking of his blog, there is a demo of him painting this very painting and it’s AMAZING! Here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxZm8YxK3GI You won’t believe your eyes! If you’re looking for a painting, check them out, he paints a variety of subjects, ALL AMAZING.  Horses, cows, Maine scenes, landscapes the list goes on and on… Enjoy the demo AND your weekend!

Don’t forget to check out my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com ! Until tomorrow…

Why did Panera change their chicken noodle soup…

On By Barbara StroudIn FOOD, THOUGHTS38 Comments

UPDATE: 2015 I tried their chicken noodle soup, it’s been years. It was very good! 

I lied. Not on purpose, but I did. I said I wasn’t going to post anymore about Panera Bread changing their chicken noodle soup recipe. BUT. I need to. I have gotten a tremendous amount of traffic on this site because of one thing. My fantastic writing skills PANERA CHANGED THEIR CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP RECIPE and (in my opinion) it’s not the best. I’m here to encourage those of you who haven’t, to let Panera know how you feel. You have reached my blog not because you enjoyed the new soup but because you were shocked at the new “improvement”. So go ahead, contact Panera (info from their website)…

👉You can email Panera Customer Support or give us a call at 855-3-PANERA (855-372-6372). Phone support is available every day from 7 A.M. – 7 P.M. CDT.

It’s a good company, so they would want to know why we aren’t buying the chicken noodle soup any longer.

Until tomorrow!

Image via www.panerabread.com

Take me AS I AM…

On By Barbara StroudIn HOME, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

Image via http://www.aliciakeys.com

Ok, if you were going to be stranded on a desert island and could take only one music album with you, which one would it be? That is the WordPress topic of the day. Kind of fun, so I thought I would play along… I like to listen to Alicia Keys – AS I AM. It starts out with the Intro that is slow and sultry, you have to turn up the volume to be sure it’s even on… then it segues into more of a beat, perfect for walking… I love to listen to it when I’m cooking or painting… So I think I’ll go ahead and turn it on now and get dinner rolling… How about you? What ONE album would you take with you if you were to be stranded…? I guess we should all take that one album with us since between the wild weather and the traffic we most certainly can be “stranded” in our cars! You can listen to these songs at www.aliciakeys.com !

Remember to check out my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com – Until tomorrow…

YO BIRDIE, IT’S ME… CHARLIE!

On By Barbara StroudIn HOME, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

What’s one thing you like to do on a Sunday? One thing we like to do is take Charlie (JRT) to the James Island County Dog Park. We had heard so much about this specific dog park, then we decided to check it out… The dog park is separated for small dogs under 25 pounds, which is where we started with Charlie… He finally graduated to the “big dog” side where there is a LOT of land to run, there is water to stand in to cool (he’s not a swimmer yet, but he will go stand in the water and maybe do a few paddles, even when it’s brutally cold!). If you have a dog do you take it to the dog park? if not, give it a try some time, you meet (mostly) nice people and the dogs are awesome to watch!
Charlie and his PBGB friend, Birdie…


See the water in the distance… This is where ALL the dogs are in the summer… In the winter everyone is really hoping they DON’T, but they always do…


This was his running buddy this past week… This dog was hilarious, would jump over smaller dogs while he was running…


This is what he looks like after soaking in the nice cold water then running and rolling in sand… The sun in his hair, he’s having the time of his life!

A router to rock your world!

On By Barbara StroudIn HOME, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

Image via http://homestore.cisco.com

I am someone who loves gadgets. I love computers and all the fun stuff that comes along with them… until it gets super technical… I am creative. I learn quickly. But I draw the line at super complicated code talk… I might as well be in Siberia… We have an iPad, but couldn’t watch the videos… seemed like a shame. After taking it to the Apple store and trying their network, I determined it wasn’t the iPad itself, next I thought it might be our cable service, maybe I wasn’t paying for high speed Internet, a call to Comcast said I was paying for it… hmmm, then WHY did everything take so long to load, why could I not watch a short uTube clip? Hmmm, only thing I could think of would be the router, so I called Linksys. They couldn’t determine a problem with our router. So back to Apple, tried again, and the iPad was fine… I could watch video at my parents and they have Comcast and a Valet router… SO… maybe it IS the router! Off to Staples we went, armed with a 15% coupon and we are now proud owners of a Valet Plus. They say it’s easy. Whattttt? It’s so easy we did it in NO TIME! This is brilliant for those of us who don’t need the complicated settings that many of the other routers provide. I can watch painting videos again! Woohoo! If you’re in the market for a router and are dreading setting it up… LOOK NO FURTHER! This thing is awesome! Until tomorrow…

Remember to visit my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com

Did you know about this? The Starbuck’s card…

On By Barbara StroudIn FOOD, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

Image via http://www.starbucks.com

Do you know about this? Does everyone know about this? My husband and I received a Starbuck’s gift card for Christmas (thank you Lindsey and Drew!) – I saw something printed on the card that mentioned registering the card… hmmm. Curious I checked it out… Turns out if you register it, each time you use it you get a point (also known as a star), after so many points (5?) you get FREE REFILLS on coffee or tea (hot or iced, nice to know in the summer!) a free birthday beverage, a free beverage with a whole bean purchase AND some trial offers!… but when you jump to the GOLD level (30 stars) you get all of those benefits PLUS a free beverage with every 15 stars (transactions), coupons for free stuff and they send you a gold card… all for using (and reloading) your gift card! If you’re a regular visitor to Starbuck’s it might save you a buck or two! Check it out, information is on their website… hmmm… a cup of joe sounds good right now! Until tomorrow…

Laugh until you cry!

On By Barbara StroudIn HOME, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

MODERN FAMILY - Image via http://www.abc.com

Have you ever laughed so hard you cry? I LOVE when that happens! You can’t plan for it, something just strikes you as hilarious and you lose all control… It has happened to me many times and they say it’s GOOD FOR YOU! I just read something about this, WHY do we cry when we’re really laughing? They’ve been studying this (ugh, please study more important things!!) and they just don’t know… I can remember my mom and I stopping at this little roadside diner. Very small place. We were seated near the window… I think its after we worked at a boatshow all day in Detroit and were over tired… we got the giggles that turned into full blown I-just-can’t-stop laughter… It’s like doing hundreds of sit-ups once you’re done, ha ha… Everyone was looking at us like we weren’t right or perhaps had too much to drink, but neither was the case… It. Just. Happens. There are countless times my sister Bridget and I would either see something funny or the funny bone is just tickled for some reason and we just lose it… same with Fred. I can’t wait until the next time this happens.

Do you need a laugh? Well if you haven’t seen Modern Family (on ABC) the ‘Caught in the Act’ preview, it cracked me up, especially the very end… can’t wait to watch the show! I wish you a weekend full of laughter!!! Get out there and laugh, laugh hard, laugh with someone, laugh alone and most of all… LAUGH OFTEN!

Video link via U Tube (it’s only 1 minute 23 seconds long…):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY5YjRGpNPI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Remember to visit my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com!

I’ve been putting this off and I need to stop!

On By Barbara StroudIn ART, HOME, THOUGHTSLeave a comment

Winsor & Newton oil paint, image via http://www.dickblick.com

I’ve been putting something off and I need to stop… Well actually I don’t need to STOP I need to START… start what? Painting… Not painting a wall, shoot, if that’s all I had to do THAT kind of painting would get done in a hurry! It’s the other kind, the kind that requires skill and creativity… Oil painting… You know when you have something you should be doing, but for some (sometimes unexplained) reason you just don’t get to it? Well, that’s me. I was on a good roll several years ago… then I think a series of paintings I wasn’t happy with just got to me… What am I doing? Do I even know? Then it was too hot… now it’s too cold… hmmm, actually TODAY is a perfect day, but I’ve got other things to get done. See what I mean? But I have it back on my mind daily.

I need to start painting again… SOON! Or else I’m going to turn the sunroom/studio back into a nice sunroom/reading area! When I look back at some of my paintings I’m thrilled, I actually am HAPPY with them… so what was my problem then? My guess is that I was comparing myself to “good” experienced artists, and in my mind I just wasn’t measuring up. Well this is the year to turn things around. Wish me luck… I’ll need it, ha!

Check out my photoblog at http://almostdailypic.wordpress.com – until tomorrow!